Nguyen Le: The More Possibilities the Better

Paris: Because jazz is historically an American art form does not mean
that it will necessarily remain one forever.
In the past, jazz giants of each generation stretched their
ancestors's tradition. Now that there seems to be no further place for it
to grow, youngsters are looking towards the horizon to create
cross-cultural traditions. There are more and more jazz schools, the
International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) has larger and more
culturally inclusive conventions each year. Graduates are turning "the
sound of surprise" into a common denominator. The shape of jazz to come is
shifting from vertical to horizontal. Americans are trained to play in the
odd meters common to the music of the rest of the world. Everybody knows
"Summertime." Anyone can play the blues.

The accomplished French/Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen (pronounced
Nouyen) Le is one of the most creative of the many jazz players exploring
the marriage of "America's classical music" with traditional music from
everywhere else. Le focuses on the traditional music of Viet Nam, where his
roots are. But he does not stop there. The personality of his album
"Bakida" (Act) is built by, among others, Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu,
Turkish flutist Kudsi Erguner and the American Chris Potter on tenor
saxophone. In the notes for the album, Le wrote: "I like to think of this
record as a banquet, to which each guest has come through his own way, to
converse about nearness and distance, sweet and salt . . . Then, if emotions
are in tune, secret connections come into light and music can become a
universal language."

Bear in mind, however, that the politically-correct Establishment
school of thought dominant in the music's homeland - as expressed in the
much-ballyhood, General Motors- sponsored, 10-episode, 19-hour Ken
Burns/Wynton Marsalis documentary film "Jazz" - considers foreign relations
like Brazilian bossa nova and Django Reinhardt's "Gypsy swing" that have
already fused with mainline jazz to be tangential at best. (Foreign
relations except African, that is.) The Austrian/American synthesist and
composer ("Birdland") Joe Zawinul has been investigating the Turkish
tradition with Turkish musicians. When an important American critic
complained that it sounded like a "Turkish square dance," Zawinul happily
agreed: "Yeah! Isn't that great?"

Born in Paris in 1959 of Vietnamese parents who came to France as
students ("my father has tons of diplomas"), Le speaks fluent English. But
it is accented, and being "foreign" is generally a handicap in what many
still consider an American enterprise. On the other hand, it helps to make
him, in the words of British critic Chris Parker, "refreshingly broad based
and multi faceted." Le, who is not in the least tempted to move to New
York, attributes this in part to the "diversity of contemporary Parisian
culture."

"My music has to be here," he said: "France is the country where
you meet musicians from all over Africa, and from Asia and South America as
well. So much of my music is based on the meeting of cultures. On the other
hand, I have to accept the fact that I will probably not have world-class
success here." While New York is still the financial, marketing and
distribution center, Paris, though considered provincial by New Yorkers,
has been called the capital of African music, and Le told Parker: "I'm deep
into African music. I've always found the relationship between black
African and North African musics very interesting." The Algerian Cheb Mami
is among the guests on his North African flavored album "Maghreb [ed; sic]
And Friends" (Act), along with Vietnamese flavor from the remarkable
traditional singer Huong Thanh.

Le's Vietnamese-based music is blues-oriented, with flatted thirds,
fifths, sevenths and ninths - "blue notes" - everywhere. (He "hated" major
chords as a child.) Or he'll detune his guitar. His album "Tales of Viet
Nam" (Act) is built around Huong Thanh's voice and the Indian percussionist
Trilok Gurtu. "Vietnamese music," Le said, "is in- between Chinese and
Indian music, like its geographical position. Also like the cooking."
Le solves problems created by the incompatibility of Vietnamese and
Western scales by bending notes and using a "special very fast" vibrato.
His dense Flamenco chords have been known to land on Hendrixian harmonics.
Reaching across continents, he might segue from a Pygmy tune into a rock
strut. A West African folk dance can be followed by arabesque ornaments, a
double-time bebop line or a funk groove. All of which, he admits, would not
go down very well in Hanoi. Because he has found that, "in each country,
the music Westerners like is not the same as what the natives like. Young
people listen to Madonna everywhere. It's not easy to find traditional
Vietnamese music in Vietnam."

Vietnamese and jazz music do not always fit. Bebop's altered chords
do not sound very Eastern. And it does not play the same way everywhere.
His record label, Act, being German, he is popular in Germany. Although, he
said: "Frankly, some Germans think we don't groove enough. They want to
dance to my music. My music is not for dancing." He works regularly in
Britain - a collective trio with drummer Peter Erskine and Michel Benita on
bass is scheduled to play Queen Elizabeth Hall and tour Scandinavia this
summer. All of this makes him one of the rare French players to have a
reputation abroad.

At home, where there is a large Vietnamese community, his haunting marriage
of cultures has immediate and obvious impact. Audiences listen hard, as
though hoping to discover something new and important to them.
When he visited Vietnam in April, he found, to his surprise, that
there was a jazz school in Hanoi. Which brings the story full circle. What
goes around comes around. Le concluded: "The more possibilities the
better."

Mike Zwerin wrote this piece for original publication in the International
Herald Tribune.

I'm Liezel from the Philippines. I got a job offer there in Vietnam for a leisure complex. I am really in to dancing. I have background in dancing here in the Philippines. I am actually part of a professional jazz dance group. I plan to take jazz, adult ballet and tap dance classes during my spare time when I start working there so that I won't feel lonely. Are there dance studios that offer such classes there in Vietnam? Around how much are the rates? Hope to hear from you regarding this matter.